Looking for Afterlife
by Twisted Storyteller
Summary: Phil, a high school boy, wanders into the forest and meets Dan, a ghost boy who needs help searching for the afterlife. Phan. AU, high school Phil. *hiatus, sorry!*
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Thank you for at least giving this fanfiction a chance by clicking on it. This was just a small idea that I thought of and made into a chaptered fic. Just so I don't scare you away with a really long author's note, I'll keep this short!** **Rated T for cussing and the word count minus author note is 1,423).**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Dan or Phil.**

* * *

Phil Lester huffed under his breath and began thinking back to when he had idiotically told himself on the first day of starting a new school "new school, new start, right?" Wrong. When he had tried to find a way to fit in and make friends, everything ended in disaster and the events that happened at his old school were repeated. Turns out being nice and not bullying people gets you no friends and a loner reputation.

The last bell of the day rang then, causing most of the boys in the locker room to cheer and race out of the double doors to meet up with friends, catch the bus, or go to clubs and sports. Phil usually waited a while during these few energetic moments to avoid to squeeze through groups of friends and couples. Besides, he wasn't in the mood to feel lonely today. It was a freaking Friday! (although he spent his weekends alone but that was besides the point)

Two minutes after the bell, the whole room was completely void of people save Phil and the teacher who kept yelling at him to get out. The 16-year-old finally obeyed and headed out of the buildings.

Phil had been one of those transfer students who had come to attendance the day after the end of the winter holiday was over. Being fifteen (because he had only recently turned sixteen) and a bit shorter than six feet tall didn't exactly help with the situation of getting friends either. So he was lonely and an easy target for bullies.

Phil was awoken from his thoughts as soon as a twig snapped beneath his left shoe. Looking around at his surroundings, he realized that he had accidentally trod onto the forest's territory. Being someone who respected nature, loved animals and was immensely polite, Phil did what normal people would laugh or scoff at; he apologized.

"Oh, uh, sorry," he said nervously in a small voice. Who wouldn't in this situation? Not that many people who get put in this place would do that. "I... I didn't mean... I'll just leave."

Phil knew it was weird. He knew he was weird. That was why he thought mistaking the sound of wind-blown leaves for a voice when he heard the reply. "It's been a while since someone's done that." Phil jumped.

Without a second thought, he began to run in the direction that he had come from. Or at least, he tried to. Phil couldn't make it ten steps before he was stopped by a pale figure standing about six yards away. They were wearing a plain black shirt that was terribly weathered, black skinny jeans and black shoes, all in the same condition.

They stood there for a few seconds, just staring, until Phil blinked and the figure was gone.

The weekend went by quickly, mostly due to the fact that Phil hated school and he spent 90 percent of the time thinking about the mysterious presumed nymph boy. Was he even a boy?

Barely into the first eighteen minutes of class, Phil was already doodling into the pages of his science notebook, making a huge dragon consume the notes that he had just written five minutes ago. Phil's eyelids began to droop and his head started to nod off from lack of sleep. The next thing he knew, he was being shaken up by a girl with dyed blonde hair who appeared to be passing papers out.

"Hey," she said almost kindly, "he's explaining homework. Stay awake." Phil nodded dumbly, now fully awake.

"Um... thanks?" Phil offered her a smile, the action almost unfamiliar from him not using it for the past month. The girl had already turned around and didn't seem to notice. She had most likely just woken him and used her breath and time to talk to him because she had a good reputation and was nice to everyone. Her not get bulliedlife was kind of the life that Phil had been trying to obtain: be nice to everyone, have friends, and not get bullied.

Nothing else out of the ordinary happened for the rest of the school day except his third period art teacher complementing his drawings, but she did that for everyone. While walking back home, however, the high school boy found himself absentmindedly heading in the direction of the forest again. It was as if fate—or something like it—was pulling him back into the odd nymph mystery.

"Hello?" Phil called as he stepped into the forest, this time making sure to ask permission to enter. "Hello?!" No reply.

"I know you're out there... somewhere," Phil continued speaking with a loud voice. The forest was silent. At this point, Phil was having second thoughts about seeing the presumed nymph. It could easily have been a hallucination. Or maybe the nymph was scared. "Don't wor—"

Suddenly, Phil felt a slight breeze and the next thing he knew, he was being shoved to the ground from behind. "Shut the fuck up!" a voice hissed from above him. Without meaning to, Phil yelped and tried to crawl out from under whoever was above him. Phil did that my uncomfortably sliding out of the straps of his backpack and slowly inching himself forwards.

When he was finally free, the teen turned to look at his attacker to see the nymph from Friday, sitting with his mouth open in shock. The two of them stared at each other blankly (much like what happened on Friday) before Phil got the courage to ask, "um, are you a nymph?"

The 'nymph' glowered at him. "This is why I don't talk to humans. Kind of surprising you came looking for me." Phil smiled, liking the sound of the 'nymph's' voice. Although it sounded like it could belong to a boy about the same age as him, Phil couldn't be too sure. The 'nymph's' eyes seemed too guarded and serious for someone of that age. Maybe they were a spirit and not a nymph.

Looking closer, Phil realized that whatever he was talking too did not have anything inhuman about their body except for the fact that they were extremely pale. Having the skin tone of freshly fallen snow, Phil couldn't exactly say that was odd however. "So, uh... you a n—" Phil tried to ask again.

"No! Ugh, why do I even bother?!" the not-nymph practically roared, instantly getting up and walking towards part of the thicker trees. "Just... forget you saw me."

"Wait," Phil called after the... whatever they were, "you're not human are you?" As soon as he said this, Phil realized that it was a stupid thing to ask since the not-nymph had pretty much regarded Phil as 'human' and something that wasn't talked to.

"No," came the reply, "but I... used to be."

"Vampire?" Phil couldn't help asking. It kind of made sense; the pale skin. The retreating figure turned around.

"No, I'm a ghost for fuck's sake, okay? I used to be a boy, I died, now I'm a ghost," the boy said, turning away again. He sounded like he was about to cry, making Phil realize that even though this boy could be over one thousand years old, he was still a boy and was probably lost on this earth. "Um," the ghost continued, "sorry for, y'know, stealing your time and cussing at you."

"Wait," Phil told the ghost for the second time, "come here." _What the hell?_ Phil thought to himself. _You sound like you're trying to hit him!_ "Oh and I'm not trying to hit on you, by the way." _That just made it more awkward_.

Thankfully, the boy didn't take notice of the last sentence and instead of turning back to walk into the woods again, he walked over to Phil and sat across from him. "Yeah?"

"Um... do you..." Phil trailed off midsentence, not knowing what to say suddenly. "Uh..."

The boy stopped him before he could make the situation more awkward. "Hey, you know this world, right? I mean, the recent technology and around this town. Could you, maybe, show me?"

Phil tried to see where the boy was going with this. "Well, I only moved here a month ago, but I have a map." The boy beamed at this.

"Great! Wanna help me look for the afterlife?"

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review and tell me what you thought of the first chapter. I'm going to try to keep this chaptered fic pretty short because I just went back to school today and everything seems kind of stressful. I can't make any promises about when I'm going to update, but I'll try for at least once a month. Really sorry if that doesn't work out. Also, (slight self promo) I have an Instagram account that I don't use anymore which _might_ turn into the account where I tell you about all about updates about stories or chapters. Back to school: since school is starting again, I'm going to post a Warrior Cats fanfiction which is about my OCs. (to those of you warrior cat fans) Unfortunately, I haven't finished it yet and I wrote it last year, so I need to pick up where I left off in the middle of the story. *sigh* Back to this story: I do want to make these chapters a lot longer, but I don't think I can do that with all the stress of school. (I'll try, but it might fail)**

 **Thanks again, byee!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Side note: Phil's high school runs on block period for all weekdays except Wednesday, which is a short day with 6+ classes.**

Phil didn't exactly know how he managed to get a ghost boy past his overprotective parents, but his plan of 'just run' had miraculously worked. The two boys now sat on Phil's bright duvet in his well lit room.

"Um," Phil said awkwardly to the boy, "mind introducing yourself?"

"Shit, sorry. I-I'm Dan... Howell."

"I'm Phil. Nice to—"

"We already met," Dan interrupted harshly. "Now that we've introduced ourselves, can we please talk about how you're going to help me?" Phil sighed at the demanding tone of the ghost, but nodded anyway.

Phil reached for his laptop, which was covered in stickers, and quickly logged in. "Ew," Dan commented as he noticed the copious stickers on Phil the surface of Phil's laptop. Ignoring Dan, Phil searched his town up on Google Maps.

"So... where do you want to go first?" he asked awkwardly, kind of fearful that the boy would reply rudely.

"I can feel that the afterlife portal is in this town, so anywhere and everywhere." _Wait, it's a portal_? Phil thought.

"Wait, so you can sense its presence? Then why don't you jus—" as if knowing what he was about to say, Dan interrupted. "Look, its not that simple, okay?" The look of confusion on Phil's face must've been extremely noticeable because the boy sighed.

"Let me explain... well, you already knew that I was going to—but—um... anyway, humans are able to see ghosts. As you may have already guessed...," Dan trailed off awkwardly, mumbling the last part as almost a whisper. "Uh, sure ghosts are slightly transparent, but you still see me. Ghosts also don't pass through walls or solid objects, as many people believe; we are able to make them unsolidified. Ghosts are easier to spot in the dark, hardly visible in broad daylight and only slightly transparent in shady areas or indoors. Well, unless I'm sitting in a patch of sunlight, or the lights are off."

Dan smiled as if that 'speech' would have given him an A grade on a report. Phil absentmindedly noticed the dimples on both of Dan's cheeks. "That's cool," Phil commented, not sure how Dan knew all this. Did he see himself like that, or did Dan look solid from his own eyes? Maybe he used to have human friends who told him. Ghost friends? Ghost friends who le—Phil shut his mind up before the scenarios could get out of hand.

"Great, so what time of the day do you think we should go around town?" Phil asked. Before Dan could answer, a shout came from the other side of the house, "Phil, I'm glad you have friends to call, but you better be doing your homework!"

"Shoot," Phil muttered. "Here," he said, quickly thinking up a plan. He handed Dan his laptop, a sheet of discarded binder paper on his bedside drawer and a pencil. "You go into my closet in case my mum comes in and make a list of all the places in this town. I'll just... do my homework." Phil sighed. Dan laughed.

A few hours later, Phil finally finished the last problem of his four page maths homework and threw his huge book onto the floor. "To hell with you!" Dan commented, laughing from the closet (he was saying that to the book). It was about 6:40, meaning dinner was about ready.

"You don't need to eat, do you?" Phil asked. Dan shook his head in reply.

After an awkward dinner with his parents, which seemed much more frequent since they moved, Phil went back to his room to find a sleeping Dan I his closet. "Do ghosts even need sleep?" he muttered to himself. Without really caring whether or not ghosts could get cold, Phil threw a blanket over the boy before getting ready for bed.

Phil woke up to the loud bell chimes of his alarm, pestering at him to get up. "Ugh," he groaned, yawning. Tuesdays were almost as brutal as Mondays. Phil barely made it two steps into his walk-in closet before Dan and landing on... Dan.

"Get off me, you mother—" Dan practically screamed. He opened his eyes and looked confused for a moment before recognition flooded into them (his eyes). "Oh, um... sorry," Dan mumbled as Phil clamored off him, muttering an apology himself. The ghost sat up.

"So, why you up so early," he asked. Phil began digging through his pile of school clothes hurriedly. Dan frowned at the mess.

"School," was all he said in reply. Phil grabbed some random clothes and jumped into the bathroom to take a shower. Eighteen minutes later, Dan and Phil were walking together to Phil's school, the early morning light making Dan only slightly transparent.

"Why'd you come along?" Phil asked. Dan shrugged.

"Maybe we can go look for the afterlife when your school's over," the ghost suggested.

"What are you going to do until then?" A boyish grin spread across Dan's face as Phil said this. "I'm going to haunt the school."

It was during second period when the haunting started. The announcements went off about twelve times without any actual announcing. Just the faint static that came through was enough to send everyone into small panic mode. Phil sighed, not that he was complaining. Dan had saved him from listening to his math teacher.

"Do you think they're (staff) just trying to scare us?" The boy sitting beside Phil asked. It took a while for Phil to realize that the boy was talking to him.

"Um... yep, I'm sure that's _exactly_ what they're doing." Phil turned back to look at the worksheet in front of him. If he finished this during all the commotion, it would be a lot less homework and more time to get rid of—ahem, _help_ Dan.

"Calm down class," the teacher said not-so-calmly, "I'm su—" Before she could finish, the announcements went off again and a high pitched shriek erupted.

"Okay, now you're just being a nuisance," Phil sighed, trying to concentrate on his worksheet. Even when it was just music, he found it hard to concentrate on the task he was doing. Eventually, his teacher gave up and just passed out the homework instead of continuing the lesson.

* * *

"How'd I do?" Dan asked, popping out from behind a tree when school was over. The boy was barely since he was so exposed to the late winter sunlight.

"Kind of annoying, but good job," Phil said. He leafed through his backpack, pulling out the sheet of lined paper containing the list of places to look for the afterlife.

"First think on this list is... Dan are you left handed?" Phil asked, staring at the heavy smudges on the paper.

"Shut up," Dan grumbled, snatching the paper from Phil. "What the hell is Deycatara Park?" Dan frowned at the paper. Phil fished out his phone and searched up the location of the park.

"It's only a thirty minute walk from here," Phil said, pocketing his phone. Dan groaned and collapsed onto the grass floor.

"I'm already exhausted, carry me." Phil sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Dan, get u—" before he could finish, Phil was shoved forward by someone's hand on the small of his back. And then Phil was on the floor beside Dan.

"What the..."

"I found the freak!" a feminine sounding voice came from far above him. Phil pushed himself up slowly to see Riza Longing, the girl with the worst and best reputation. And from the informative rumors of the school, Phil knew that the only reason why she had a "good" reputation was because she was often mistaken for her sister, Beah. Who, by the way, was the girl who had woken Phil up the week before.

"Let him go, Riz (she's too lazy to say -a)," a bored voice said from behind the looming figure. Despite Phil being about six foot, this girl still towered about a head over him.

"But it's Lester," she complained, as if it was a reasonable response. "Can't I toy with him for a bit?" Phil knew she was just asking the question to mock him. Riza gave no fucks about anyone's opinions.

Suddenly, Phil felt someone tugging him away from the girl by his hand and practically dragging him down the block beside the school. It was Dan, obviously, and Phil couldn't decide which was more surprising; the fact that Dan got up or that he could run.

"Uh, thanks," Phil panted as they slowed down at a shopping center on the neighboring block. Dan laughed.

"I just didn't want you to be hurt, so you could carry me." Was this guy—ghost kidding?!

Fifty-two minutes later, Phil made it to Deycatara Park with a disconcerting weight on his usually light back.

"You said it was only a thirty minute walk," Dan complained. Phil groaned. How old was this kid? Phil dumped Dan onto the ground and collapsed onto the yellowish grass. After about five minutes of recovering, Phil slid his backpack (yes, Dan and a backpack on his poor back) off and began to do his homework.

In the middle of suffering between problems, Phil's mother called to check up on him. It was a rare occurrence that Phil wouldn't come straight home as soon as school ended, but helping a ghost look for the afterlife certainly didn't sound like a sane reason. So Phil used the lame excuse of needing help on his homework. Thankfully, his mum bought it.

"Dan?" Phil called, shoving his folders and pencil back into the bag before getting up. There was no response. Phil knew he shouldn't jump to conclusions, but he sensed that something bad had happened. "Dan?!"

Slinging his backpack over his shoulder, Phil ran (okay, speed-walked) around the park in search of the ghost. He almost died of relief when he spotted Dan crouched on the ground, facing the tree, and hugging his knees. "D-Dan?" The boy didn't give any acknowledgement that he had heard.

"Uh... Dan?" Phil asked, louder this time. He was practically standing beside Dan when he noticed that the boy's head was in his hands, and he was shaking. "Dan, what's wrong?" Phil asked, using a gentler tone this time. Dan slowly turned his head to face Phil. He wasn't crying yet, but it looked like he was on the brink of tears.

"Phil..." he said softly. It was barely even a whisper. "The afterlife... it's gone."


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! I don't always reply, but I do read them. Also, don't mind my awkward commenting every now and then (literally every paragraph). One last thing, it's a fanfiction so the American school system exists in the UK apparently.**

"What to you mean it's gone?" was what Phil wanted to say, but from watching countless television shows and reading a ton of books, he knew that that question never helped in these situations. Not exactly knowing what the hell he was doing, Phil sat under the tree beside the trembling Dan.

"Don't worry, Dan," Phil began hesitantly, "the world is quite small, and a plane ticket isn't that expensive." Dan replied almost instantly.

"You don't understand, Phil! The afterlife entrance does whatever it wants. It could be on another planet, inside a black hole, on a star, the center of the Earth... hell, it could even be in another universe..."

Phil took a while to think. He had never even considered the possibility that the afterlife could be off Earth. The world sure was small, but the universe was unfathomable. Phil didn't know what came over him at that moment, but he grabbed Dan by the shoulders and said, "we'll figure it out."

"Wh-what?" Dan looked at Phil, confused and brushed the other boy off of him. "No, no, no, no, no, no. _I'll_ figure it out. You go home." Dan said the last words slowly in emphasis. Predictably, Phil objected.

"No way," Phil said, gently pulling Dan up by the hand.

"Yes way," the ghost replied stubbornly. "Unlike me, you actually have a life." Phil laughed.

"That's true," he said, before grabbing Dan's arm and dragging him out of the park. At first, Dan tried to protest but soon gave up when Phil didn't give a response. Phil knew that the boy could just pass through him, but Dan didn't for some odd reason. As soon as he unlocked the door, Phil bolted past his parents and crashed into his room.

"Great, you can let go of me now," Dan said in a robotic manner. Phil released him.

"Right, since it's not in this town, I can ask my parents to go somewhere else for holiday," Phil suggested optimistically. Dan, now on the other side of the room, stared at Phil with an odd expression on his face. "What?"

"How can you be so positive?" Phil shrugged. "Anyway, I'll just be here—" Dan pointed at Phil's closet "—until your holiday, I guess." (by the way, I don't know whether or not that was the correct use of punctuation)

"I have a ghost in my closet, lads," Phil mumbled to no one in particular.

* * *

The next few weeks passed by slowly with teachers yelling at Phil's wandering attention, Phil's mum yelling at his reluctance to do homework, and his bullies yelling at him for not keeping off of their lunch area. (Phil thought they were pretty stupid for even having a "lunch area") Dan, however, just stayed inside the closet sitting... well, laying down.

There was just one more week until the week of holiday, and Phil had requested to go to America (because I have literally never been anywhere besides the US).

"Dan," Phil said as he walked into the closet after school on Monday. As expected, the ghost was laying on the blanket—faced away—that Phil had left in there. He didn't reply as Phil changed out of his uncomfortable school clothes.

"We're going to America for holiday," Phil continued awkwardly while pulling on a blue t-shirt with a kitten on it. Dan grunted in response. _Okay, sure_ , Phil thought. But before he exited the small room, Dan slowly whispered, "thanks."

And before he could talk himself out of it, Phil found himself saying, "maybe you should come to school with me again tomorrow." Even though he couldn't see Dan, Phil knew he was smiling when he responded, "maybe I should." (this was a very short section...)

* * *

"Ow!" Dan exclaimed as Phil pushed him against one of the walls of the school. "What was that for?"

"People are gonna see you!" Phil said urgently. Dan rolled his eyes.

"No they're not," he said. "I've been doing this for a while, so trust me when I say 'people aren't going to see me.'" (don't know about you, but I noticed they actually have conversations similar to this in their videos sometimes)

Phil sighed in defeat. To make matters worse, Dan had insisted on sitting against the wall in the shade, making him quite conspicuous. There weren't any people around this side of the school since the boys had purposefully gone out early to avoid Phil's nagging parents.

The two of them sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Dan decided to break it awkwardly. "So... ever been to America?"

"Um, yeah," Phil said, thinking back to the last time he had gone. It had been in primary school. (send help, writer's blockkk) "Come on," he continued, changing the subject. "Let's walk around to pass time."

"Ugh," Dan groaned but picked himself up anyway. "Aren't you scared that someone's going to see me though?" (plan b, im just going to write small sections until they go on holiday)

* * *

"Do your homework," Dan said, tossing a bunch of papers at Phil, who was in the middle of playing some video game.

"It's the week before break, I don't have to do it," (just to clarify it is not finals week) Phil answered absentmindedly.

"That's not how it works..." Dan mumbled, picking up the papers he threw. "Do it after you die." (in the game, obvs) (I FInd it kind of ironic that Dan's telling someone to do work) (even though I wrote this) (oops) (okay I'll stop, soz)

As soon as the game ended, Dan practically jumped at Phil to do his homework. "Are you some kind of knowledge-consuming demon?" Phil asked rhetorically as he took the papers from the ghost.

"No," Dan replied after settling down, "I just want to laugh at your pain."

* * *

"Shit, run!" Dan exclaimed from behind Phil, pushing the boy. He fell a step forward but didn't go any farther.

"What?"

"Don't you hear Miss Clas thunder fricken light storm stomping?" Dan blurted out. (clas was just a misspeak)

"Huh?!" Phil blinked. Dan sighed.

"Rinka, the girl that attacked you last month."

"Oh, Riza. 'Clas thunder stomping', really Dan?" Phil asked. Dan didn't reply, but shoved them both around the corner of the school hallway. "Look, she is not that—"

"Phil?" a voice called from the corner. Though it sounded like Riza's, it definitely couldn't be because the girl used a gruffer tone.

"She's trying to seduce you," Dan commented.

"What the hell?" Phil replied and peeked around the corner to see Beah heading towards him. He could tell it was her because of the fine detail of her clothing, hair, and makeup.

"Phil!" Beah called when she saw him. It made the boy wonder why she was so excited to see him.

"Um, hi?" He answered nervously, glancing behind him to see whether or not Dan had gone through the wall. He had.

"I just... wanted to ask: has Riza been, I don't know, causing you any difficulties?" She asked. Phil's unique mind instantly went to the theory that Riza was a malfunctioning robot made by a lonely girl. Phil shook his head softly to clear and tuned back into what Beah was saying before anymore random thoughts could suffice his mind.

"...to encumber her," she finished. Although he didn't know what the girl had just said, Phil nodded, too scared to ask her what she had just said. But before he could make an excuse to run into the bathroom and scream (socializing, am I right?), Beah spoke again.

"Did you understand the science homework that was handed out today, by the way?" Phil couldn't help but sigh. Of course that's why she went looking for him.

"Um, no, sorry." Phil waved and hoped she got the message before walking away. She didn't.

"Why don't we work on it together?" she asked. Phil's brain quickly tried to find an excuse.

"Um..." Before Phil could say anything else, a voice—Dan's—shouted his name from somewhere down the hall. "Sorry, gotta go!"

* * *

Frantically, Phil shoved piles after piles of stuff (miscellaneous *beep*) into his suitcase.

"Do you really need this?" Dan asked, taking out a huge plush Totoro. It was taking up about 70% of the space.

"Yes," Phil replied and took the stuffed Totoro out of Dan's grasp and put it back into his suitcase.

* * *

"Here we go!" Phil whisper-talked to the semitransparent ghost beside him. They were at the airport to board their flight to America and Phil's parents had just come back from wandering around. Dan slipped silently behind Phil. (side note, I've never been on a plane before except in those who only fir 4 people so... just gonna skip some parts until they're on the plane)

"Right," Dan said, settling down on the plane seat. He was holding Phil's phone and was looking at a map of America. "Where we going?"

"Arizona," Phil replied sitting down as well, "um... Flagstaff, where the Grand Canyon is, I think." He laughed. "I think that's one of the places that they'd want to go."

"Ew, why is America so big?" Dan complained, shaking the phone around. Phil laughed again.

"Dan, we're only staying in one area," Phil said. A few minutes later, the plane began to take off.

 **Author's Note: Okay, I reeeeeallllllyyyyyy didn't like this chapter. And it took so long to upload as well (cry). Just so you know, this fanfiction isn't meant to be really long and complex so the amount of chapters is going to be no more than 10. Until next time...**


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